Thursday, February 18, 2010

Art v."Scholarship"

Am I the only person who might think it odd to find a crowd of Art Historians totally in charge of the School of Painting?

In other words, would any painter of sound mind opine that the perhaps worthy and erudite scholarly "Journalists of Art History" could have anything apposite to say about actually teaching a student to paint?

Similarly:
Now that Creative Writing has grown up -- to a certain extent! -- as an academic discipline am I the only writer who thinks it might be time to argue that Creative Writing needs its own department?

And if it is not quite time -- just yet! -- to argue that Creative Writing now properly belongs in a Creative Writing Department not completely under the aegis of those no doubt worthy and erudite scholarly "Journalists of Literary History" ... when will it be time?

Shouldn't the Creative Writing Department properly be under the aegis of the Schoiol of the Arts?

I mean ... isn't the writing of poetry and fiction art? ... e.g., not journalism? and not literary scholarship? of the same type that used to let an English Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia specialize in "textual comparison" ???

Haven't the English Departments hijacked the Creative Writing programs for their own benefit? -- for the warm bodies they needed to bolster their own declining enrollments?

I would be interested to hear of any steps in this direction that may have been taken already.

I would be interested to hear from any fiction writer or poet about how the Creative Writing curriculum -- especially for undergraduates might be different?

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About Me

Prize winning novelist and chef. My food column appeared in six daily newspapers long before the food revolution began. I have written several novels even less well known than beloved Gravely, which Scribner's published in 1984 and blessed with their Maxwell Perkins Prize. These manuscripts -- Why I Love Brunettes and Daughters -- are available to any interested reader. I started writing as a sports reporter on the Kingston Daily Freeman. I have a Master's Degree in Fiction Writing (telling lies?) ... but no B.A., though I do speak French and Spanish and have studied enough Greek to parse the Koinae. Long before I attended the famous Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, my food column Christian's Cookery used to appear in eight daily newspapers, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress and The Omaha World herald. After attending high school near Woodstock, New York, where they never had the Woodstock Music Festival, I owned a very successful money-making restaurant in Charlottesville. While working as a country mailman, I learned to jump small coops bareback. I have piloted hot air balloons. I love my children more than stars. Two of my best friends, both named David, died some years ago. I love scribbling, cooking and Morgon. I still believe B. Traven was Jack London. My favorite movie is Mr. Hulot's Holiday. And the restaurant opening scene from Playtime. Do you know me?